JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM
Empowering Communities Through Justice System Reform
Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s (SCSJ) Justice System Reform Program promotes social, economic, and racial justice by focusing on directly affected communities who bear the brunt of our deeply flawed and intractably racist system of mass incarceration.
Our Work
Our work seeks to support, protect, and empower safe and healthy communities while creating a less punitive, more accountable criminal legal system.
End Mass Incarceration
We seek to reduce the number of people entering and remaining in the criminal legal system.
Support Second Chances
We help individuals who have experienced involvement with the criminal legal system to navigate the reentry process.
Reframe Public Safety
We explore and interrogate policies and practices that increase public safety and center justice for all.
Promote Youth Justice
We support communities of color and grassroots organizations working to end the over-criminalization of youth.
How We Advance Justice System Reform
SCSJ is committed to empowering community members through education. We provide digital and physical educational resources that advocate for accessible expungement processes, support the decriminalization of youth, and encourage community members to know their legal rights.
SCSJ holds state and local officials accountable through litigation when they abuse their authority. Representing historically marginalized individuals and communities, we initiate lawsuits against municipalities, counties, and other governmental entities to ensure that unlawful or unconstitutional practices and policies cease.
SCSJ envisions a future in which young people of color attend schools that lift them up, not pat them down. Through opportunities like Youth Justice Project, we invest in mentorship-based programs to achieve educational justice and liberation.
Justice System Reform News
New SCSJ Resource Exposes How U.S. Legal System Forcibly Separates Families, Undermining Public Safety
DURHAM, N.C. (May 7, 2025) — As headlines continue to spotlight the United States’ troubling deportation of young U.S. citizens and its ongoing family separation crisis, Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) has released a timely and urgent resource: “How the Law is Used to Break Apart Families and Undermine Public Safety.” This new report reveals the deeply…
Read More New SCSJ Resource Exposes How U.S. Legal System Forcibly Separates Families, Undermining Public Safety
Lawsuit: CPCC Hid Info About Public Safety Training Facility, Then Retaliated Against Community
CHARLOTTE, N.C (April 23, 2025) — The Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) Board of Trustees violated North Carolina’s Open Meetings law by keeping its discussions and decisions about a controversial public safety training facility behind closed doors and then retaliated when members of the public started asking questions, according to a new lawsuit. The lawsuit…
Read More Lawsuit: CPCC Hid Info About Public Safety Training Facility, Then Retaliated Against Community
Justice System Reform Cases
